The present invention relates to a clutch assist mechanism for a hand clutch and, more particularly, to a telescopic bar mounted to a lever of the hand clutch to reduce the amount of force required to actuate the hand clutch of a vehicle.
Conventional hand clutches include a pivotable lever mounted to the vehicle, typically the vehicle handle adjacent a handgrip. For example, a motorcycle typically includes a pivotable lever mounted to one of the handlebars adjacent the handgrip. The pivotable lever is biased to a relaxed position, pivotably distanced from the handgrip. To actuate the hand clutch, the pivotable lever is grasped by a user's fingers and pulled or pivoted toward the handgrip to pull on a hand clutch wire and actuate the clutch. When the hand clutch is actuated, the clutch is disengaged such that the gear of the vehicle may be changed. The pivotable clutch lever has a fixed length and the wire often encounters resistance when sliding through a protective sheathing that the wire is housed within. Accordingly, as the wire encounters increasing resistance, the force required to actuate the clutch by pulling with a user's fingers often increases. In addition, the wire often encounters additional resistance as the vehicle heats up during use. On long trips, the increased force required to actuate the hand clutch and frequent shifting often fatigues a rider's hand and may lead to rider error or physical damage to a rider's hand or arm.
It would be desirable to construct a hand clutch that is able to vary the amount of force that a user is required to apply to the lever to actuate the clutch. The clutch assist mechanism of the present invention provides a telescopic bar mounted to the hand clutch lever to vary the amount of force required to actuate the hand clutch.